National champs - Mt Stromlo

photo by Adam MacLeod:

photos by Russ Baker:

XCC

Riding the hammerhead A-line

The podium of the Club Team Relay

Well, it was a big weekend at Mt Stromlo. It started off really well with a convincing win for the CORC team (Michael Baker, Rosie Barnes, Nathan Haas, and I) in the club team relay. We lead from start to finish from Perth MTB club and Tablelands Cycle Club and even managed to clock the 3 fastest laps of the race.

Sunday’s XCO was not such a success. I had spent a lot of time thinking about this race over the past 2 months and it hadn’t occurred to me how crucial the start could be. When I pulled my foot on the start and got swamped by the 60-strong field, it was clear that I had my work cut out for me. I had to use a lot of energy to move up to about 25th by the start of the single track climb, from then it was a matter of being patient through the narrow sections and wait for the fire roads to open it up and make places. By the middle of lap 3 I had made it up to 8th position, but the effort was starting to take its toll and the temperature was rising. The last 2 laps were a bit of a struggle but I hung on to 11th (7th Elite). I’m not super happy with the result, but a few good things came out of it. Working back up after a bad start is probably a good skill to have as I’m not expecting to be off the front when I go overseas to race the World Cups this year! i'm also glad i didnt panic, i nearly did it well, but just misjudged slightly how hard i could go.

XCC was very fast and very hot. My start was ok but I missed the split to the main bunch early on. I lapped around consistently on my limit with Paul Vandy for most of the race (thanks for dragging me Paul), and ended up finishing in 11th.

It’s off to Mt Buller now. Not too much down time at this time of year.

Welcome aboard to Jet Black Products

There has been not a lot to write about regarding racing over the Christmas period, just a lot of big solo k's battling the holiday traffic. However, the big news is the welcoming of Jet Black as a wheel sponsor. The wheels are Jet Black branded and are a really good all-round wheel. They are stiff enough for everyday use and light enough to race XC, and at less than $700rrp, they are really good value too. The claimed weight is 1660g, but the set the i weighed came in at 1615g (without skewers), which is respectable for such a stiff feeling wheel. And so far they have survived the abuse of riding on the rough trails around Cooma without needing any truing. They are also very easy to set up tubeless, which is a must these days.

Hendo, Clarkey (coach) and myslef are off the Stromlo this weekend for some training on the Nationals/Worlds course. As well as having a good hit out on the course, we are planning to gather some powertap/minimax/HR data to analyse. Hopefully something interesting will come out of it that will make me ride faster at nationals, if so i'll be sure to write about it in my next blog (without giving too much away of course!).

See you all at the National Champs!